PFsense SLow and High CPU

karlzre

Do you thin kthe Platform is not powerfull enough ? ( we have 100-150 users)

heper

also might try

sysctl dev.em.0.debug=1
```from console

doktornotor

karlzre - Apparently not in your case when idiots/broken mobile shit keeps hammering the CP over and over again. (Other than that, you told us exactly NOTHING about your "platform"). And yeah, there's also something very broken about the NICs. Did you enable some nonsense like polling there?

karlzre

also might try
Code: [Select]
sysctl dev.em.0.debug=1
from console

dev.em.0.debug: -1 -> -1

Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
Current: 800 MHz, Max: 1600 MHz
2 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 1 core(s) x 2 HTT threads

Memory usage
13% of 2006 MB
SWAP usage
0% of 4096 MB
Disk usage
/ (ufs): 2% of 23G
/var/run (ufs in RAM): 3% of 3.4M

karlzre

Did you enable some nonsense like polling there?

Enable device polling is disabled.

doktornotor

@karlzre:

Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
Current: 800 MHz, Max: 1600 MHz
2 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 1 core(s) x 2 HTT threads

This CPU is just old slow POS, but that thing is running at half the freq it's spec'ed for with 100% CPU usage? :o Try fiddling with the powerd settings.

Also, post some information about the NICs.

SplineZ

@doktornotor:

This CPU is just old slow POS, but that thing is running at half the freq it's spec'ed for with 100% CPU usage? :o Try fiddling with the powerd settings.

Also, post some information about the NICs.

I have a bit more power behind my box and Ive run into the same thing.. Is powerd on minimum capable of causing this issue?

my machine gets loaded up with 60mbits of torrent/netflix traffic (that is my connection speed) from time to time and I see that [kernel{em0 taskq}] and [intr{swi5: fast taskq}] tasks taking up the majority of the available CPU.. Polling is turned off..

This machine as built from spare parts that I had laying around is it possible that im just running into a limitation with the hardware?

IC2D 2.13ghz, Asus OEM shitty mobo, 3gb ram, Intel Pro/1000 Legacy (external), Realtek 8169 (Internal)

doktornotor

@SplineZ:

I have a bit more power behind my box and Ive run into the same thing.. Is powerd on minimum capable of causing this issue?

You need to fiddle with whatever settings are available there. People here mentioned boxes where CPU is never run at full freq unless powerd is enabled somehow. Sure if set @minimum, that's a good candidate.

Stewart

You may also want to look at https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=59028.0 to remove those messages from the log and help cut down the noise. Looks like they may not mean anything.

SplineZ

@doktornotor:

@SplineZ:

I have a bit more power behind my box and Ive run into the same thing.. Is powerd on minimum capable of causing this issue?

You need to fiddle with whatever settings are available there. People here mentioned boxes where CPU is never run at full freq unless powerd is enabled somehow. Sure if set @minimum, that's a good candidate.

Interestingly enough, I switched it to adaptive and the overall load on the machine has lowered a HUGE amount. Lets say from 6.0 to under 0.7-0.5.. Kind of ironic that the feature meant to save energy is actually causing an increase… (in this situation)

Seriously, Turn on the profile "minimum" and max out your connection, your load will raise slowly.. turn it to Adaptive and watch it lower almost immediately. "[kernel{em0 taskq}]" is the task using all the cpu..


With "Minimum" power setting on powerd

last pid: 11607;  load averages:  3.36,  1.79,  0.99 
  PID USERNAME      PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE   C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
    0 root          -92    0     0K   192K CPU0    0 647:46  79.49% [kernel{em0 taskq}]
   12 root          -56    -     0K   272K WAIT    1 432:38  51.46% [intr{swi5: fast taskq}]
87987 root          100   20 25160K  6464K CPU0    0   0:04  26.27% /sbin/pfctl -ss
   11 root          155 ki31     0K    32K RUN     1 390.8H  15.97% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
   11 root          155 ki31     0K    32K RUN     0 385.3H  11.18% [idle{idle: cpu0}]

With "HiAdaptive" power setting on powerd

last pid: 61673;  load averages:  0.53,  1.23,  0.89   
     PID USERNAME      PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE   C   TIME    WCPU COMMAND
   11 root          155 ki31     0K    32K RUN     1 390.9H  97.56% [idle{idle: cpu1}]
   11 root          155 ki31     0K    32K CPU0    0 385.3H  83.98% [idle{idle: cpu0}]
    0 root          -92    0     0K   192K -       0 648:19  10.16% [kernel{em0 taskq}]
   12 root          -56    -     0K   272K WAIT    1 433:00   5.66% [intr{swi5: fast taskq}]
   12 root          -92    -     0K   272K WAIT    1  58:56   0.98% [intr{irq19: em0 uhci1}]
   12 root          -92    -     0K   272K WAIT    0  40:54   0.78% [intr{irq16: re0 uhci3}]

No other changes were made on the machine other then fiddling with the powerd settings.. I never would have thought to look there.. Kudos and thanks!

Harvy66

You're misunderstanding what're being reported. Load is relative. If your CPU is running at 100mhz, then it's not hard to reach 75% usage. The reason "load" is high when using minimum is because the CPU is being down-clocked, you are saving power.